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On Saturday I drove down to Princeton NJ (in a mini van full of Brooklyn kidlit peeps!) to attend the 7th Annual Princeton Children's Book Festival, hosted by the Princeton Public Library. What an awesome, fun-filled day. I got to meet lots of kids and their parents, a bunch of librarians and teachers, AND several authors and illustrators whose work I've admired over the years. Ohh, and I signed a good amount of books too! And THEN, the owner of JaZams bookstore, Joanne Farrugia, graciously opened up her home to us authors and illustrators for one fantastic after-party (w/ crab cakes and champagne — yummm!) An all round success of a day, I'd say :)

Wait a minute, though. Before you go shining up a class ring for me and calling Goldman Sachs to tell them they’ll have a new CEO in a few years, I should probably qualify that statement. I wasn’t invited to Princeton the University. I was invited to Princeton the Children’s Book Festival.

Okay, I know I’m rather delayed in posting about this… but at least I did get around to it!

This year I headed off to Chicago, IL again to attended my 2nd year at the Printers Row Lit Fest. Last year I had a blast, met a lot of wonderful people and sold a bunch of books. This year didn’t disappoint either!

Let’s start at the beginning.

I flew into O’Hare Thursday evening (June 7th). Last year was great, but I didn’t get to see any of Chicago and was determined to fix that this year! My sweetie Sean Hayden was kind enough to pick me up (for those who didn’t know, we met for the first time at PR last year!)

Chicago!

We found our hotel, which I found using Expedia and got for an awesome 32$ a night. It was the Extended Stay American Chicago in Hillside. Considering the price, I was beyond relieved to find out it was not only easy to get to, but in excellent condition. Though not at all fancy (and no maid service though you could exchange sheets and towels at the front desk) it was VERY clean, the room was huge with a full kitchenette and everything worked. I would certainly stay there again.

On Friday we toured Chicago a bit, and visited the most awesome Navy Pier. It was a hot day, but we had a load of fun watching the boats, touring the shops and eating funnel cakes! We had dinner at the famous Bubba Gumps. Which was pretty neat, though I found my memories of the details in the movie Forrest Gump weren’t so great.

Saturday was the big first day of Printers Row! Which meant getting up at like 5am to have everything ready and loaded. Luckily traffic was awesome and we got to the site early and were able to drive in to unload. Everyone else started arriving and it was a flurry of hellos and set up. The weather was hot but otherwise fantastic. The crowd didn’t seem to be as big as last year, but they were buying! A lot of people stopped to chat, browse (and buy) books and get autographs. Luckily we had a cooler full of ice to keep us from melting in the heat. By 6pm we were closing up (and btw, yes that is a verrrrry long day) and packing our stuff into the center of the tent. We all had dinner across the street where we ate and chatted for a few hours and then I think we all went back to hotels for some sleep.

Sunday we were there early again, set everything up again, and kept on selling! Flashy Fiction and Other Insane Tales did absolutely fantastic! (Of course it does have a really cool cover Add a Comment

Between us, Cynthia and I have launched twelve books (with more forthcoming :-)), so I thought the time was ripe for some observations on a launch and signing.

While it's perfectly valid to ignore the publication of a book and treat it as any other day, Cyn and I have had a policy since we started in the business of celebrating each success, however small. As Bradley Sanguini says, "Life merits celebration." And the hatching of a new book is a big deal.

Also, a book launch is in some ways a marketing tool in addition to being a celebration -- it gets people talking about and buying your book. And hopefully excited about reading it.

There are several ways this could be done, of course, including a bookstore signing, a signing or event at another facility, or a party at your home. For CHRONAL ENGINE, we had a public party and signing at BookPeople and a private reception at our house. We chose to split the event so we could have something open to the public but also be able to celebrate with members of the immediate community (I will talk about a launch party/reception in a subsequent post).

So, here are some thoughts, in no particular order, about a bookstore launch.

The Bookstore Event

Things to do long before your book comes out or even sells to a publisher:

Get to know your local bookstore and the booksellers. Don't be stalker-ish, though.

Buy books at your local bookstore. They are a business, after all, and it needs to make business sense for them to open their facility to you (for free). Frequenting the store will develop good will toward that end. And, really, you should be reading anyway.

Attend other book launches and book-related events at the local bookstore. You will learn things, have fun, and enjoy being a part of the scene. And you don't want to be one of those types who doesn't support others but expects their support in return.

Be a part of a community of writers. In addition to being fun and uplifting, apart from immediate family, these are the folks who are most likely to share in the excitement. And, unlike family, they will be able to get it get it.

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. She's stuck at JFK, late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon to be step-mother that Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's in seat 18B. Hadley's in 18A.

Twists of fate and quirks of timing play out in this thoughtful novel about family connections, second chances and first loves. Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.

That is amazing guys =) I'm so jealous and happy for you...lol Thanks for sharing your photo for with us that could not go. I hear ya on the finals. My last one is Monday and then I can get back to my reading. School has really took its toll on my reading hobby ;)

This Saturday I'll be signing books, along with many lovely and talented authors & illustrators, at the Brooklyn Museum's 3rd annual Children's Book Fair. Come say HI, and grab some early Christmas gifts for your friends and family!

Anthony Horowitz’s Stormbreaker, the first novel about the teen superspy Alex Rider, appeared ten years ago; his eight actionpacked missions have since been translated into 28 languages. He reflects on the success of the series, and his other work, including TV’s Foyle’s War and A Handbag for NT Connections.

Notes:Anthony Horowitz’s Stormbreaker, the first novel about the teen superspy Alex Rider, appeared ten years ago; his eight actionpacked missions have since been translated into 28 languages. He reflects on the success of the series, and his other work, including TV’s Foyle’s War and A Handbag for NT Connections.
Tickets £3.50/£2.50
Running time: 45mins
This event is followed by a booksigning.

A quick post to announce an appearance. I’ll be popping into Collingswood, NJ this Saturday, from 10AM-4PM, for their annual book festival. Never been to Collingswood (a town in South Jersey, just outside of Philly), but this seems like a great little event (click on the logo above for more details!). I didn’t sign up early enough to be one of the authors giving a talk or sitting in on a panel, but I’ll have a table among the exhibitors – booth 87 to be exact. I’ll be selling and signing copies of DWEEB and chatting folks up about my new book, which has recently been retitled The Only Ones and is due on shelves in less than a year. Perhaps I’ll even have a few surprises up my sleeve. So if you’re from New Jersey or Philadelphia or Delaware, or heck, even if you’re from Bhutan, come on by. Seeing you will be a treat. Until then…

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This coming Saturday, October 16th, is the Illustrators Festival at the Brooklyn Public Library. It's one of the events connected to the DRAWN IN BROOKLYN exhibition. Over 30 illustrators will be present, doing readings, workshops, book signings, and there will even be some musical entertainment. I'll be signing three of my books: What Happens on Wednesdays, That's Papa's Way, and Alfie Runs Away. If you're in the area I hope you'll stop by. It should be a great time. Here are the details:

So! This Saturday and Sunday are filled with fun book and art-related events that I'll be a part of: One in Brooklyn, one in Manhattan, and one in Baltimore! Below are the flyers for all three events (just click on each for all the details). Hope to see you at at least one of the following!

This [Black] Friday, Nov. 26th @ 2pm, I am going to be signing CHRISTMAS IS HERE at Barnes & Noble in my home town of Bel Air, Md. If you live in the area, I hope you'll come by and say "hello". I'm pretty excited—it's shaping up to be a reunion of sorts!Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Here’s more from Green’s announcement: “I am doing this because 1. I like my readers, and 2. I want to find a way to thank them for choosing to read my books in this media-saturated world, and 3. I can’t tour everywhere, and it seems weird to preference readers who live near big metropolitan areas of the US over other readers, plus 4. I think it will be kind of fun unless my hand falls off.”

Lane Smith was in the Flatiron two Fridays ago, armed with Sharpies and and a sunny attitude. His demeanor made the daunting task at hand—1,500 copies of Grandpa Green, prepped for a Lane Smith autograph—more fun than work.

It's murderous day for a book signing. Kathryn Miller Haines will be making a killer appearance at Murder By The Book on September 3rd at 4:30 PM for a book signing. Come on out for a wicked good time!

I'm heading home to the Midwest this week. I'll be signing copies of TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS IN WISCONSIN this next Saturday, Dec. 3 at the Middleton, WI Costco from 11am-2pm. (outside Madison) Stop by if you're in the area, I'll be the one shivering in the corner. :)

I posted a synopsis of my trip to sign posters for Highlights for Children at their exhibit at the International Reading Association's Convention West in Phoenix this past weekend. You can see it here on my blog.

Have you heard about Ning.com It is like Facebook, but you join groups instead of individuals. You can search by keyword.

Special Thanks

Special thanks to those of you who emailed me saying you tried to nominate me for the Blogger Appreciation Week. (that was so sweet!) Unfortunately, the nominations closed last week. But honestly, it was all the thoughts that counted the most. No really! :)

Speaking of great blogs - we all follow some great ones. Don't know how I missed this, but at the end of May Writer's digest posted their list of best web sites for 2009. Check it out - there are some great resources. They have also opened up there 2010 nomination process for 101 best web sites for Writers. You can send comments and nominations for next year’s list to writersdigest@fwmedia.com with “101 Websites” in the subject line (deadline is Jan. 1, 2010).

Girl's Night Out

Saturday was definitely a writer day.

Met up with old critique group members for coffee.

Spoke at the Atlanta Schmooze - on what you ask??? What else? Marketing! ;) Nathaniel (Master Writer of The Orgami Master) spoke about his approach to picture books.

Had dinner with Sheri Dillard, Elizabeth Dulemba, and Nathaniel

What a better way to cap off the night - a double signing with Jennifer Jabaley (Lipstick Apology) and Ginger Rue (Brand New Emily).

Here are a few notes on Jennifer:

Lipstick Apology is about a 16 year old girl, Emily, loses her parents in a plane accident. The media finds a note written on a tray table in lipstick that says: "Emily I am so sorry." Emily is forced to move to NY with her aunt and tries to recover from her loss.

She got her idea for Lipstick Apology from her sister. When her sister was leaving her kids (and flying) for the first time on vacation. She kept calling Jennifer and giving her instructions "in case the plane went down" (I've done this before!!!!!) Jennifer joked with her hubby and said, "watch my sister's plane go down. She'll probably take out her lipstick and write: "kids need to be in bed by 7" on the tray table. Jennifer's hubby said - "that would be a good book". Jennifer wrote it on a post-it and put it in a drawer. She found the post it when she was moving 3 years later.

She writes her books out long hand (yes you heard that right) and then transcribes to the computer.

She found her agent through the traditional way of submitting into the slush pile.

She felt the hardest part of the book was balancing a serious topic of grief and loss with humor.

She started writing during the 2 hours her baby napped. "if you want it bad enough, you will make/find the time."

Here are a few notes on Ginger:

Brand New Emily is about a 14 year old girl who is not popular at school. Emily decides to hire a New York publicist to makeover her image. Emily returns to rule the school all while discovering who she really is.

She used to do some journalism for celebrity magazine. She had to do an interview with Country music singers. She felt like there was not much difference between them so she talked with their publicists, who gave her insight into celebrity image makeovers. Ginger thought it would be interesting to use that in a teen book.

She partnered up with Bonne Bell/Lipsmackers, who provide her with lipsmackers at her signings and promote her book online. Her character, Emily, uses that makeup to improve her image.

Here's the rules.1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might not know.5. Nominate other Bloggers.6. Post links to the blogs you nominate.7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.

I'm going to switch it up.Here are my favorite 7 things about other people :) Who is scared yet?

Just kidding!

7 things about me:

1) I have a 15 year old Jack Russell Terrier (or otherwise known as terror). He's getting old and I dread the day he goes. He's been through so much with me and is part of my family.

2) I was kicked in the chest by a BABY deer when I was camping because I tried to sneak up behind it in the woods. OK fine, I was planning on riding it. Kids - don't try this at home. It hurts.

3) I drove a huge blue and white van in high school until my senior year.I tried so hard to make it cool. Unfortunately my dad did too. He added big red dice to the rear view mirror and ordered a airbrush license plate for the front that said USS Johannes. I learned thin that if you pretend you're cool, sometimes people forget your not.

4) My daughter has a rarishVSD heart condition. She is fine now but the first 6 months were scary. I have a panic attack every time she has heart burn :(

5) My favorite drink is a martini - not just any martini. Greygoose vodka straight up, extra, slightly dirty with extra olives. Yum! This is from my days of reading Ian Fleming books.

6) The first car I bought with my own hard-earned money was a 1995Jetta. Unfortunately I had to give up my 1992 red Toyota hatchback Celica because it had no air, no radio (had to drive with a boom box on the seat - yes I said boom box!!!) and every morning I had to put in a quart of oil. Needless to say, I only got 500$ for it which was more than I expected.

7) I am insecure about my arms. I was a professional gymnasts from age 3 until age 10. This means in middle and high school, I had a tendency to resemble a small linebacker. I have always had broad shoulders and muscular arms. This is not a problem now b/c since I'm older, it works, but back in school my cheerleading squad (yes I was a cheerleader! why? my parents made me try out. I really just wanted to sing/play guitar) always made me the base because I was so strong. *sigh* I cannot watch cheerleaders today without getting a bit weepy ;)

Lots of cool stuff here!I have heard of Ning, and am a member. There's this very loud part of me that wants to scream "no more social networking places".Seriously. Can't we all just settle on Facebook :)

I love that you drove a van in high school. I drove Daisy, a '78 Oldsmobile that we liked to enter via the windows Dukes of Hazard style. Lipstick Apology sounds really interesting. I'll have to keep my eye out for it.

I use to always say I'd write my books out longhand...soooo glad I haven't.

My husband was a gymnast all through college...still have the hardest time finding him shirts that can stretch across his shoulders.

I was a cheerleader and am trying to steer my girls away from it. What did all those cheers mean?!! Push them back, push them back. I spent hours saying things like that. It's a wonder I can write my own name now. Sorry to all cheerleading lovers out there!

I promised Olivia – my whip-wielding assistant – that I would write a quick blog before next month gets underway and here it is. The clocks went back today and it feels that winter has finally drawn in. And there’s my old winter coat stretched out on the sofa in my office with my old dog stretched out on top of it. The sun is setting and it’s only 4.00pm! As usual, the year has gone past like an express train (not the most brilliant of comparisons but I’ve just stepped off the Eurostar from Paris so trains are very much in my mind). And why was I in Paris? Read on. Although actually, I’m not entirely sure myself.

I went to Paris for a reunion of secret agents who worked for the SOE, the Special Operations Executive in the second world war. I wrote about the SOE a few years ago in an episode of Foyle’s War and developed a huge admiration for them…they were incredibly resourceful and brave. Nowadays, the survivors are extremely old but still as sharp as knives…in their case the Fairbairn-Sykes double-edged commando knife with eight-inch blade that was developed for their use. I listened to a talk by a saboteur who must have been almost ninety but looked thirty years younger. I also met a lady whose job was to “seduce” SOE agents and see if she could get information out of them. If she succeeded, they were sent home. It was bizarre because I actually created such a character when I was writing Foyle…and here she was for real!

While I’m on the subject of TV, next month COLLISION is being shown on ITV, starting on a Monday and ending on a Friday. I’ve mentioned this programme before and here it is again but I’m really proud of it and hope it’ll do well. When you make TV programmes, so much can go wrong. You get the wrong director or the weather’s bad or you run out of money or whatever. But this time everything went perfectly and I honestly think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. You can expect to read quite a bit of it in the month ahead and there are going to be some big posters too. Let’s just hope it pours with rain so people stay in and watch.

And at more or less the same time (I don’t have the exact dates), I’m setting off on my CROCODILE TEARS tour which takes me to Edinburgh and Birmingham before I head back to London and finally – at the end of the month – Dublin. If you’ve ever been to one of my talks, you’ll know that usually I just walk onto the stage and answer questions for an hour. This time, we’re doing it rather differently. It’s going to be more of an interview with clips from STORMBREAKER, COLLISION and FOYLE’S WAR. The interviewer is a journalist/presenter called Paul Blezard who does a brilliant job. He could make a study of thirteenth century paint drying techniques sound interesting. There’ll still be time for questions from the audience – but it makes it all a bit more varied and, more to the point, less work for me.

I will, of course, be signing copies of CT – and the publishers have come up with a special stamp that’s unique to these events. And I can catch up with my family on the way. My son, Nick, is at university in Edinburgh and my mother-in-law lives in Birmingham so maybe they’ll come along and heckle.

Then I’m off to America, which I mentioned in my July blog. The cities have now been chosen and include Boston, Detroit, St Louis, Raleigh, Atlanta and Washington DC. So many flights! I’ve begun to worry about my carbon footprint which may surprise you but I’ve been researching global warming for my next book – the last in the Power of Five series – and the facts do seem to be rather alarming…which is probably the understatement of the millennium. I’ve also joined something called 10:10 which is a rather smart campaign by The Guardian to get everyone to cut their emissions by 10% in the year 2010. Normally I don’t join campaigns. God help me if I become a do-gooder in my old age (actually, He likes do-gooders so He probably will). But it seemed hard to refuse this one. Apart from anything else, I’ve noticed the water getting closer and closer to my little house in Orford. I used to live beside the sea. Now I seem to live in it…at least some of the time.

And here’s something else that I’ve joined. I’ve become a judge for Divine Chocolate who are running a poetry competition. You have to write a poem (which can be rude, funny, sad, serious, whatever) called “If I owned a chocolate company” and the winners will receive large quantities of chocolate, book tokens and a recording of the poem by me. Since I have a stammer and a lisp, this may not be the best part of it, but I’d say otherwise it’s definitely worth a go. It was my friend, Anne Fine, who introduced me to the competition and I have to say I do absolutely love the chocolate and I suppose I ought to mention (doing good again) that it’s a Fair Trade product and so worth supporting. You can find more details on their website:

I recently judged a short story competition too. The quality of the writing was very high but I have to say that a lot of the entries were rather depressing. Subjects included suicide, self-hatred, cancer, autism and disability…and those were some of the more cheerful ones. I met the winners at a reception at 10 Downing Street and that was rather depressing too. G. Brown looked worn out and miserable. Not surprising, I suppose, given the bashing he gets in the press. Anyway, if you want my advice, if you do write poems, you’ll find something cheerful to say. But then how could owning a chocolate factory not be fun?

Finally, while I’m away, I’m going to be tweeting again. I joined Twitter last year and twittered or tweeted every day for a while but then I got fed up with it. I thought it was getting a bit naff what with people like Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry even twittering when they tied up their shoelaces. But my American publisher insists that it’s worthwhile and my son Cass is currently on the road in Australia and he may pick up some of my messages so as from today, I’ll be sharing my own trivia with the world once again. If you’re interested, you can follow me on tour.

The next time I write a blog, it’ll be Christmas. In fact, in half the shops in my area, it already is. Sometimes, I’m tempted to throw bricks…

Happy Halloween!

Anthony Horowitz

25th October 2009

This is a picture, my son, Nick, took when I was in Kenya, researching Crocodile Tears. And it's not a long-distance lens! He managed to snap them moments before they attempted to snap him.

0 Comments on MY BLOG FOR NOVEMBER. IT’S GOING TO BE A BUSY MONTH! as of 10/28/2009 5:02:00 PM